Quote from: writermonk;720824The old Omni system version of Atlantis: the Second Age is really close to a D&D clone set in an ancient Earth. Aside from ubiquitous humans, there's fairly standard elves, dwarves, gnomes, dark elves, trolls, giants, and goblins that you'd recognize from any standard RAW D&D game. Well, the trolls would be different. And there's one small group of dwarves who ride ostriches. Otherwise, you could pretty much play in the old Omni Atlantis using D&D as a rules-set without much strain.

The Omega Atlantis is different. Those differences might seem subtle and minor mechanically, but they do impact play a great deal.

Omega ditches tons of Talents (Feats for D&D) and pares them down. Same with the Skill list. Omega then adds in Hero Points. The Hero Point mechanics have a huge impact on play; players can use them in a variety of ways and around a table often players actions will provide an impetus to encourage (incite) others to push and spend Hero Points as well. Instead of XP, Omega switches to Renown. Your advances as your Renown climbs are pretty structured; it might not seem like a big difference to just getting XP and spending it on skills, but it does mean that characters tend to be very focused on one small set of skills or abilities as they grow in power. Omega assumes that magic all comes from outside - demons, elementals, spirits, etc - and that the miracles of the gods are very manifest. Arguably, magic in Omni is similar, but in Omni, the implication is that the caster is powerful and can command all these things (even priestly magic). In Omega, while the player is control of that, in game the character is dependent upon outside forces for world-bending power and that comes at a cost. Too, the miracles of the gods are handled vastly differently in each: in Omni, it's just another field of magic, in Omega it's a matter of rituals and appeasement and a literal personal relationship with a god.

Interesting. How do Hero Points work?

They give a bonus to rolls or other similar benefits (reduce damage etc), similar to Savage Worlds, Buffy or M&M. How many you can spend on a single roll is determined by one's Renown.

You get set number of Hero Points per adventure. These initial Hero Points are aligned to certain elements that double their bonus in certain situations i.e fire HP would give a double bonus in combat.

Hero Points are also gained in other limited situations such as divine mass rituals or cursing a God.

Sounds cool.

How are the CR and MR calculated in this edition?

Quote from: Dan Davenport;720888Sounds cool.

How are the CR and MR calculated in this edition?

They are attributes, like Str and Int, and not derived stats. Attributes are made up from race, primarily, adjusted by Profession and then by freebies.

Quote from: Sommerjon;703399That's unfortunate.  I'm growing tired of the d20.

To be fair though - the Talislanta/Omni/Omega system has probably the sleekest use of a D20 in any role-playing game. The results table makes action resolution super-simple on the player side, and on the back end. Plus this makes a d20 roll into a tiered system with degrees of success, rather than a binary pass/fail system like in D&D.

Also, the game ties attack and damage into a single roll with the results table, and combat goes by super quick.

Also, the game looks a bit more complex than it actually plays. I really like this system, and the Atlantis setting.

Yeah. I am not a fan of d20, yet I think the Omega system in Atlantis is pretty boss.

Oh, could someone go into a little more detail about how miracles work in the new edition?

And has anyone heard from Jerry lately? I'm trying to get in touch with him to arrange a Q&A.

Quote from: Gizmoduck5000;721056To be fair though - the Talislanta/Omni/Omega system has probably the sleekest use of a D20 in any role-playing game. The results table makes action resolution super-simple on the player side, and on the back end. Plus this makes a d20 roll into a tiered system with degrees of success, rather than a binary pass/fail system like in D&D.

Also, the game ties attack and damage into a single roll with the results table, and combat goes by super quick.

Agreed. It's puzzling to me why the system never caught on. Maybe it's the lack of adventure support.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;721216Oh, could someone go into a little more detail about how miracles work in the new edition?

And has anyone heard from Jerry lately? I'm trying to get in touch with him to arrange a Q&A.

Jerry's been busy fulfilling both Atlantis and Geographica. He gave an update for the later yesterday.

Miracles come in two forms. Priests can get a number (around 3-5) of subtle yet powerful blessings based on the Domain of their God or Goddess. This is rare and represents the Chosen of the Gods

There is also a more involved process of undertaking divine rituals (blood or wealth sacrifice, large numbers, time etc) to gain Hero Points.

Quote from: Haffrung;721231It's puzzling to me why the system never caught on. Maybe it's the lack of adventure support.

I don't know about the visibility in the US but here in Germany the OMNI games suffered from spotty distribution. It is easier to get hold of Hellas today than you could find High Medieval or Atlantis: The Second Age, despite HM and A:TSA being more maintream.
With OMNI the system could have got traction but the OGL only covered the skill descriptions and either talents or spells (I don't remember), and not the basic rules (attributes, templates, the Action Result Table), effectively shutting out third party publishers.

And regardless of edition, Talislanta was always considered weird.
Lots of copies of the German edition of Tal2 ended in the hands of the largest RPG club, GFR, to be used in a postage-saving "scheme": Back then yearly membership letters could have been sent using regular mail (expensive) or as printed matter (cheap) since printed matter was allowed to contain a cover letter. The club made it a habit to send their members overstock RPG titles donated to them.

Skywalker, your review of this edition got me. I bought my copy yesterday via DriveThru.

As a long time follower of this setting I must express how awesome I think the changes the guys at Khepera made are (my first Atlantis book was the Bestiary back in the 80s and I also own the whole Morrigan edition).

Trimmed down the talents, focused on the interesting races and ditched all that Tolkien-EDO stuff. Great! Oh, and Lemurians - big apes with guns!

I will use that edition for an Eldritch Skies/Hellas crossover later this year. See, how that works.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;721216Oh, could someone go into a little more detail about how miracles work in the new edition?

And has anyone heard from Jerry lately? I'm trying to get in touch with him to arrange a Q&A.

I'll pass along to Jerry that you're looking for him, Dan.

As Skywalker said, but allow me to elaborate from one of my current PBP games.

Characters with the Domain Access Talent all get a few minor powers based upon the Domain they choose - each god has a few they lord over.

Lenelle (a PC) is a devoted priestess of Ahbra. As such, the player chose the Fortune Domain. That means that Lenelle can:

• Re-roll one die per point of CHA+1 each game.
• Always find a full bottle of wine.
• Always has a coin in her pocket and a full belly no matter the circumstances.

Not a bad little set of abilities. Re-rolling die rolls is handy and stacks on top of a similar ability she has since she's a Human. The other two aren't quite mechanical bonuses, but they do add some flavor to the character.

During the game, she and two other PCs approached a town beset by a terrible beast. Ahbra is also a goddess who rules over Earth, and one of the blessings of Earth is prodigious strength. The characters (there's another priest with Lenelle who worships a different deity) sacrificed a mule on a makeshift alter to gain some additional Hero Points. Then, they each prayed for a period of time (like 15 minutes-ish in game, so not something you can whip out in the middle of combat) and sacrificed a bit of the slain of mule to the gods (spending Hero Points culled from the earlier sacrifice and prayer). As a result of that, Lenelle - who spent 30 minutes and 6 Hero Points - has +10 to her STR attribute as long as she touching the ground until sunset. That's frankly a huge bonus.

Quote from: Gizmoduck5000;721056To be fair though - the Talislanta/Omni/Omega system has probably the sleekest use of a D20 in any role-playing game. The results table makes action resolution super-simple on the player side, and on the back end. Plus this makes a d20 roll into a tiered system with degrees of success, rather than a binary pass/fail system like in D&D.

Also, the game ties attack and damage into a single roll with the results table, and combat goes by super quick.

Also, the game looks a bit more complex than it actually plays. I really like this system, and the Atlantis setting.

I've been saying this for almost 20-years. The Talislanta d20 mechanics are simply awesome. Simple - but yet full of as much complexity as required for almost any game.

I also agree with OMNI's big issue being spotty distribution.

Talislanta's exotic setting has always seemed to be a sticking point for the traditional D&D crowd. Never understood why given how over the years D&D mutated into things like "Tieflings" and "Genasi" being considered "normal" races...

Dat system tho? Rocks the socks.

Quote from: tenbones;721576I've been saying this for almost 20-years. The Talislanta d20 mechanics are simply awesome. Simple - but yet full of as much complexity as required for almost any game.

I also agree with OMNI's big issue being spotty distribution.

Talislanta's exotic setting has always seemed to be a sticking point for the traditional D&D crowd. Never understood why given how over the years D&D mutated into things like "Tieflings" and "Genasi" being considered "normal" races...

Dat system tho? Rocks the socks.

Yeah...people have been lining up for blocks to toss Vincent Bakers salad for his revolutionary xworld resolution mechanic when Talislanta's results table did the exact same thing - in the goddamn 80's.

I'd love to see a microlite version of talislanta though.

Tangent: Didn't Dirk Remmecke of this very thread write the original microlite20?

Quote from: Gizmoduck5000;721663Yeah...people have been lining up for blocks to toss Vincent Bakers salad for his revolutionary xworld resolution mechanic when Talislanta's results table did the exact same thing - in the goddamn 80's.

I'd love to see a microlite version of talislanta though.

Tangent: Didn't Dirk Remmecke of this very thread write the original microlite20?

No, that was a group affair at ENworld, orchestrated by Robin V. Stacey ("Greywulf"):
Microlite – The Smallest Thing in Gaming
New Microlite20 Thread (because the first one brought the forum software to its knees at 1217 postings)
I was not even there, I learned of M20 when all was said and done...

I just did a German translation (building on the first one Alex "Kensanata" Schroeder--organizer of the latest One Page Dungeon Contests--did of the basic one sheet) that I was able to get printed as a 28 page booklet to be given away for free at anime conventions.